La Torre (Avila)

La Torre municipality
	La Torre - town view
Basic data
Autonomous Community :	Castile and Leon
Province :	Ávila
Comarca :	Valle de Amblés
Coordinates	40 ° 35 ′ N , 4 ° 58 ′ W Coordinates: 40 ° 35 ′ N , 4 ° 58 ′ W
Height :	1130 msnm
Area :	58.41 km²
Residents :	239 (Jan. 1, 2019)
Population density :	4.09 inhabitants / km²
Postal code :	05540
Municipality number ( INE ):	05247
administration
Website :	La Torre

La Torre is a mountain village and a centrally Spanish municipality ( municipio ) with a total of 239 inhabitants (as of January 1 2019) in the center of the province of Ávila in the Autonomous Community of Castile and Leon . The municipality also includes the hamlets (pedanías) Guareña, Blacha, Balbarda, Oco and Sanchicorto .

Location and climate

The place La Torre is located in the west of the Valle de Amblés on the north side of the Iberian Divide Mountains at an altitude of approx. 1130 m . The city of Ávila is a good 30 km (driving distance) to the northeast. The Río Adaja , a tributary of the Duero , flows about 2.5 km south of the place. The climate in winter is cool, in summer it is quite warm despite the altitude; the low amounts of precipitation (approx. 450 mm / year) fall - with the exception of the almost rainless summer months - distributed over the whole year.

Population development

year	1857	1900	1950	2000	2018
Residents	354	447	376	427	239

The apparently unstoppable decline in population since the 1950s - despite incorporations - is essentially due to the mechanization of agriculture and the associated loss of jobs.

economy

Agriculture (especially cattle breeding) has traditionally played the most important role in the community's formerly self-sufficient economy. The place is considered to be the center of meat and ham production in the Valle de Amblés. Income from tourism in the form of renting out holiday homes (casas rurales) was added in the last decades of the 20th century.

history

In the first millennium BC The municipality belonged to the settlement area of the Celtic Vettons . Roman , Visigoth and even Arabic-Moorish traces are missing. In the 11th and 12th centuries, the Valle de Amblés was probably recaptured by the Christians more or less without a fight ( reconquista ) and then repopulated ( repoblación ) .

Attractions

Hamlet Blacha - Klauenstand (potro de herrar) and view of the town

Hamlet Oco - claw stand

La Torre

The parish church built from granite stones (Iglesia de Santo Tomás Apóstol) dates from the 15th / 16th centuries. Century. Unlike most other churches in the Valle de Amblés, it has a bell tower (camapanario) and not a bell gable (espadaña) . The nave as well as by a flying buttress separated apse are of a typical local Artesonado -Holzbalkendecke with tie rods spans. In the apse there is a late baroque altarpiece (retablo) ; another is on the north outer wall.
In the forecourt of the church are two fragments of stone Celtic animal sculptures ( verracos ) .

Blacha

The hamlet of Blacha , located on the Río Adaja and only counting about 40 inhabitants, has a parish church similar to that of La Torre. On the south side, the single-nave church was extended by an open vestibule (portico) .

Outside the village there is a claw stand (potro de herrar) for caring for the hooves of working animals.